It was the first of two town hall meetings designed to give students a voice in the running of the school district.

It was a familiar format, but one which had little to do with politics, rather school policy and how students might be able to help shape it. It was organized by a superintendent who's been on the job just six months.

The town hall meeting was held inside the Chesapeake High School media center in Essex. There were 60 students there from a dozen area schools and they had plenty of questions including lunch menus, a longer school day, and technology to what's being taught in the classroom.

"What are your intentions for Baltimore County public schools as far as improvements academic wise and traditions that you would like to keep going and keep alive?" one student asked Dance.

"One of the things about Baltimore county public school is that we are really known as a good system. The question for us now is how do we make a good school system a great school system?" Dance responded.

Dance also took questions about bullying and school safety.

"We pull, whether it's a weapons or something off of a student, or we actually intervene in information every day because a student has over heard something or their friend has told them something and they share it with us," Dance said.

All but a handful of student questions were unscripted at the request of the school superintendent.

"Honestly, the thing is, if you worry about what students are going to ask you then you're not doing the job. What I want to know is the real story. I tell my staff I want to know the real deal. I want to hear from students about the real issues, because if we know what the real issues are, then we can move forward," Dance said.

"It was, like, my first time meeting Dr. Dance and I feel like even though he didn't get to answer my question, that a lot of questions were answered and it was, like, really awesome," student Linia Sankar said.

The superintendent's goal, in part, was to try and build trust with students.

"I thought Dr. Dance was very down to earth. I thought he really listened to what we were saying and it was a way, I think, for students to kind of see what the superintendent does, and that's not something I think we see all the time," student Matt Munk said.

Dance passed along one piece of advice to students; he told them to think twice before they put personal information on social media.